Lighting units comprising LED light sources and luminescent materials as light converters are known in the art.
WO0108452, for instance, describes a light source comprising a radiation source having an emission from 420 to 490 nm and a phosphor having a garnet structure as represented by A3B5O12:Ce wherein A is terbium or terbium together with at least one of the elements Y, Gd, La, and/or Lu and B is at least one of the elements Al and Ga, the phosphor converting at least a part of the emission from the radiation source into a longer-wave radiation.
Further, WO2010116294 describes a luminescent converter for a phosphor-enhanced light source. The luminescent converter comprises a first luminescent material configured for absorbing at least a part of excitation light emitted by a light emitter of the phosphor-enhanced light source, and for converting at least a part of the absorbed excitation light into first emission light comprising a longer wavelength compared to the excitation light. The luminescent converter further comprises a second luminescent material comprising organic luminescent material and configured for absorbing at least a part of the first emission light emitted by the first luminescent material, and for converting at least a part of the absorbed first emission light into second emission light having a longer wavelength compared to the first emission light. An effect of the luminescent converter according to the invention is that the two-step light conversion according to the invention generates a relatively small Stokes shift of the light emitted by the organic luminescent material. The inventors have found that by reducing the Stokes shift of the organic luminescent material, the width of the spectrum of the second emission light is limited to reduce an infrared part in the emission spectrum. As such, the efficiency is improved.